1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector, and particularly to an edge card connector with a retention mechanism for securely retaining an inserted card therein.
2. Description of Related Art
Edge card connectors, such as Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) connectors are widely used in the computer industry ranging from servers to workstations, personal computers (PCs), laptop PCs and mobile devices. PCI connectors establish a high-performance I/O interconnection between a Central processing unit (CPU) and its peripherals to transfer data therebetween.
PCI Express is a newly developed serial I/O technology compatible with the current PCI software environment that offers low-cost, scalable performance for the next generation of computing and communications platforms. In recent days, PCI Express connectors according to the PCI Express standard are designed to achieve a perfectly high-performance interconnection between two electronic devices, such as a mother printed circuit board and a graphics card.
A conventional PCI Express connector is generally mounted on a mother printed circuit board of a computer to receive a graphics card therein. The connector comprises an elongated dielectric housing defining a card slot along a longitudinal direction thereof and a plurality of terminals located at opposite sides of the card slot. When the graphics card is received in the card slot of the connector, an electrical connection is thus established between the graphics card and the motherboard. However, during transport or shipment of the computer, the connector with the graphics card received therein is subject to high shock loads, which results in the graphics card moving out of the connector. Thus, the electrical connection is adversely affected between the graphics card and the motherboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,368,124, assigned to the same assignee (Hon Hai Precision Ind. Co., Ltd.) with this patent application, discloses a solution to add a shroud around the connector. The shroud includes a plastic retainer having a latch projection hooked onto a notch of the graphics card. In an alternative embodiment, the retainer is directly integrated into an insulating housing of the connector. Significantly, forming the retainer integrally with the shroud or the housing complicates the manufacture as well as the operation thereof. To provide sufficient resiliency for easy deflection by the user, the plastic retainer may have a large length. In addition, the graphics card may be sometimes unreliably received in the connector due to wear of the plastic latch projection and/or the latch projection popping out of the notch of the graphics card in high shock load.
Hence, an edge card connector having improved retention mechanism is required to overcome the disadvantages of the related art.
Accordingly, a first object of the present invention is to provide an edge card connector having an improved retention mechanism for securing an inserted card therein.
A second object of the present invention is to provide an edge card connector having an improved retention mechanism which can be easily manufactured and operated.
In order to achieve the objects set forth, an electrical connector in accordance with the present invention comprises an elongate dielectric housing defining a slot along a longitudinal direction thereof, a plurality of contacts retained in the housing for electrically engaging with an electronic card and a retention mechanism located at one end of the housing. The retention mechanism includes a pair of curved resilient arms abutting against a top face of the housing and a pair of legs spaced from each other to define a channel therebetween adapted for receiving a latching projection of an electronic card. The resilient arms flatten out to move the legs outwardly.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.